Like most of the other reviewers here I initially watched Battle of the Planets when I was a kid. It was my favourite cartoon, but when I tried to watch it again as an adult I found it to be quite incoherent. I was never a fan of 7Zark7 anyway (was anyone?) but the way the action was constantly interrupted by cutaways to him assuring the viewers that no one ever got hurt were quite jarring.
I first heard about Gatchaman about ten years ago but I didn't think I could watch it because the characters have different names to those in BOTP. But earlier this year I watched a few episodes online and after I'd seen about 20 of them I was so hooked I coughed up for the collectors edition blu ray. It turned out to be one of the best purchases I've made.
If you can get past the first 15 episodes the quality of the show really improves. The animation and the storylines really crank up a notch. There are a few duff episodes, but out of 105 in total that is to be expected. I quickly realised that BOTP was actually a very poor imitation of Gatchaman. BOTP cut out all of the violence (of which there is a lot) and it also ditched the storylines that ran all the way through the 105 episodes.
From about the halfway mark the story becomes a real cat and mouse affair between Gatchaman and the bad guys, Galactor. The race to catch Berg Katse (formerly Zoltar in BOTP) really hots up. I was particularly impressed by some of the darker storylines, many of which look like they were a big influence on many of the big Hollywood movies that followed (Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc).
There is also some great humour in here. Katse has henchmen called Willis and Daltrey, and I'm certain it's just so the writers could make him say lines like "What you talking about Willis?" and "Roger, Daltrey"
Also, unlike BOTP a lot of people die in Gatchaman. The Galactor henchmen get burned alive on numerous occasions, but also the good guys don't always make it out alive. There are a few significant deaths that were never shown in BOTP which omitted to show about 25 of the Gatchaman episodes (usually the best ones). I also liked the fact that the good guys didn't win every time. There are many episodes where the bad guys triumph or kill someone important.
When I was finished watching this (I did one episode a day for 105 days) I was genuinely sad as I'd become very attached to the show and its characters, which is something I never imagined possible all these decades after I first watched BOTP.
If you were a fan of BOTP and you were thinking of watching Gatchaman, I would recommend you get right on it. I thought it was brilliant and light years ahead of its time.
